e will; but, generally, the red
man fears to grapple with a pale face in the strife of war, for he
considers him clothed with an unknown power.

_Austin._ I should have thought that an Indian would be more than a
match for a white man.

_Hunter._ So long as he can crawl in the grass or brushwood, and steal
silently upon him by surprise, or send a shaft from his bow from
behind a tree, or a bullet from his rifle from the brow of a bluff, he
has an advantage; but, when he comes face to face with the white man,
he is superstitiously afraid of him. The power of the white man, in
war, is that of bravery and skill; the power of the red man consists
much in stratagem and surprise. Fifty white men, armed, on an open
plain, would beat off a hundred red men.

_Brian._ Why is it that the red men are always fighting against one
another? They are all brothers, and what is the use of their killing
one another?

_Hunter._ Most of the battles, among the Indians, are brought about by
the belief that they are bound to revenge an injury to their tribe.
There can be no peace till revenge is taken; they are almost always
retaliating one on another. Then, again, the red men have too often
been tempted, bribed, and, in some cases, forced to fight for the
white man.

_Brian._ That is very sad, though.

_Hunter._ It is sad; but when you say red men are brothers, are not
white men brothers too? And have they not been instructed in the
truths of Christianity, and the gospel of peace, which red men have
not, and yet how ready they are to draw the sword! War springs from
sinful passions; and until sin is subdued in the human heart, war will
ever be congenial to it.

_Austin._ What do the Indians call the sun?

_Hunter._ The different tribes speak different languages, and
therefore you must tell me which of them you mean.

_Austin._ Oh! I forgot that. Tell me what any two or three of the
tribes call it.

_Hunter._ A Sioux calls it _wee_; a Mandan, _menahka_; a Tuscarora,
_hiday_; and a Blackfoot, _cristeque ahtose_.

_Austin._ The Blackfoot is the hardest to remember. I should not like
to learn that language.

_Brian._ But you must learn it, if you go among them; or else you will
not understand a word they say.

_Austin._ Well! I shall manage it somehow or other. Perhaps some of
them may know English; or we may make motions one to another. What do
they call the moon?

_Hunter._ A Blackfoot calls it _coque ahtose_; a Sioux, _on we